Chaffee in Crisis: How thousands of Cuban refugees altered a small Arkansas community

"Tens of thousands of Cubans are fleeing the repression of the Castro regime under peril and chaotic conditions. At least 7 people have died on the high seas. The responsibility for those deaths and further loss of life rests on the shoulders of Fidel Castro. First, we are ready to start an airlift and a sea lift for these screened and qualified people to come to our country. We will provide this airlift and sealift to our country and other countries as well," Carter said in an April 1980 presidential address to the U.S.

Reversing a closed immigration policy, Castro also announced in 1980 that he would open the Port of Mariel, allowing Cuban citizens to leave if they desired to do so. It caused a mass exodus of more than 125,000 Cubans who were escaping starvation and repression to seek a life of liberty in the U.S.

"It was chaotic and extremely dangerous. I couldn't say goodbye to my mother, nothing. I just kept going," said Cuban native Felix Earlson. "There was no time to look back."

Earlson was a 27-year-old english teacher in Cuba, walking down the street as Cuban authorities were rounding up people to put them on a bus bound for America. Earlson wanted to go, but they said there were stipulations.

"They said, 'You have to be a prisoner, an ex-convict, or a homosexual,' to which I replied, 'I don't fall into any of those categories,'" Earlson said. "At the time, the regime was claiming that it was getting rid of the scum. I was at the hands of whoever was controlling the entire operation."

When boats arrived in Cuba, the U.S. didn't have any control over who the regime loaded onto them.

The Cuban government "got rid of bad people intentionally, maliciously. They went to mental institutions. They went to prisons and they forced those individuals to leave the country when they had no desire to leave," Earlson said.

Jim Spears was a public defender of Cuban refugees in 1980, and since then has become a historian and author of "Yearning to Breathe -Free," a book about the Cuban relocation process. He said getting the refugees from Cuba to the U.S. turned deadly for many.

"They were loading these boats up with people, not knowing who they were before taking them to Key West. They would just turn around and they'd go back for another loop. It was a remarkable thing that happened," Spears said. "Some people drowned, and now all of a sudden, at an air force base down there, they were overwhelmed, thinking 'What we do with all these people?'" 

The plan, determined by President Jimmy Carter's administration, was to set up relocation camps at old military bases, Fort Chaffee being one of them.

On May 9, 1980, Cuban refugees started arriving at Fort Chaffee.

"The first planeload landed with no preparation. We had some police and stuff out there with buses to take them from the airport to Fort Chaffee. They had some barracks set up and we started moving them out there," Spears said.

Robert Huston was a reporter for 5NEWS at the time of the relocation project. He worked in the news department for many years and covered the Cuban relocation from the time it began until it ended.

"As far as public sentiment was concerned, I won't say the entire community was against it, but I would say there was a lot of fear-mongering going on prior to them arriving, and certainly after they arrived," said Huston. "We couldn't interview [the refugees] because they didn't speak English. In fact, no one to my knowledge, no one in Sebastian County, Arkansas, spoke Spanish. Certainly, no one in law enforcement spoke Spanish. And I am not sure that the National Guard or anyone running the base at that time could speak Spanish. It was sort of a recipe for disaster."

Now you have thousands of Cuban refugees starting to arrive in America at multiple military bases across the country. The idea was to keep them on the property until they could be processed out. 

The federal government wanted to document their personal information before sending them out to start their new lives. They would also need a family member already in the U.S. or a sponsor who would take them in until they could get on their feet.

"It was hard for many because you had an outside community that wasn't sure they could trust the refugees," Huston said. "Catholic charities came to help relocate people and find families for them in different parts of the country. I think some of those folks spoke Spanish. They knew what they were doing. The authorities relied heavily on those guys because they could communicate with them."

Right away, the Cuban refugees settled into the barracks and started to build their own communities within Fort Chaffee's walls. 

Some had jobs on the base to help keep the refugees fed and comfortable but just like in any community, laws were broken.

There were fights, stabbings, theft, and other criminal activity among the refugees. They would now have to learn to navigate the American criminal justice system.

"They were totally unprepared for it. You know, we're operating in a system of laws here and the laws apply to everybody," Spears said. "These refugees from Cuba were used to a system where the law was whatever Castro said. They were appointed a lawyer. They were tried before a jury and before the judge. It was a system that they had no relation to."

The Cuban refugees housed at Fort Chaffee weren't prisoners, but they were expected to stay on the fort's grounds until they were processed out. 

After nearly a month, some refugees started to venture out into nearby communities anyway. This was the turning point.

Military police within Fort Chaffee's walls were told by the federal government not to use violence or force to keep them on the property, as this was a diplomatic relationship.

 Then there were state and local agencies on the outside of Fort Chaffee, like Fort Smith Police, the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office, and the Arkansas State Police— they didn't have the same orders.

When the Cuban refugees would venture out, guards would usher them back inside of the gates. Some within surrounding communities would relay their safety concerns to authorities. Those tasked with security at Fort Chaffe started tightening their hold, but it was hard to figure out who was in charge and who had the authority to use force if necessary. 

Governor Bill Clinton relayed his conversations about security with local leaders to President Carter. The efforts looked like they were being taken into account.

"I have received no indication whatsoever that any of the reservations I have expressed will not be acted on by the federal officials," Clinton said in a speech to the media at the time.

"The President was talking to his aides, coming down the chain of command. Again, nobody was in charge. Nobody was doing anything wrong, they just didn't think they had the authority to do it," said author Jim Spears.

"There was a lot of misinformation. There wasn't a lot of transparency of what was coming out of Washington," recalled former reporter Robert Huston. "I don't know whose fault it was, if it was the President's fault or if it was whoever was in charge of immigration naturalization. I know the [National Parks] police were charged with keeping order at Fort Chaffee, who had no experience or authority to my knowledge to handle relocation operations with refugees."

As the days ticked by, the number of refugees wanting to leave Fort Chaffee grew significantly. It wasn't long before more law enforcement was called in to help.

"It was Memorial Day 1980 ... the biggest night of the Old Fort Days Rodeo, the biggest grand entry in the world. While that's going on, all these refugees get out the back gate," Huston said. "So, you had this mass exodus of people you can't talk to or understand going out the back gate of Fort Chaffee. About that time the rodeo lets out. You have all these people coming from 71 Highway. Traffic stalemated. They couldn't go anywhere."

People in surrounding communities were watching it all unfold.

"Well, word got out to the public, and people started sitting on their porches with shotguns and pistols. The fear-mongering came into play again," Huston said. "In the meantime, they are trying to round up all these guys on school buses and get them back to the base. That should have been a big tip-off that these people are getting restless. Well, six days later they rioted."

Frustrated that freedom was just out of reach, hundreds of Cuban refugees began to march down Fort Chaffee's streets and headed for the front gate on June 1, 1980.

While military police were armed, official orders from high up were that force couldn't be used. The federal government saw this as a diplomatic relocation mission.

The crowd of Cuban refugees didn't stop there. They scaled a fence and headed down Highway 22 toward Barling.

Arkansas State Police, on the outside of the military chain of command, did take action against the Cuban refugees while trying to stop them from going any further. They built a human barricade refusing to let the refugees pass. Refugees started throwing rocks in retaliation.

Citizens in surrounding communities got word and decided to march to Fort Chaffee. They wanted to stop the escaped refugees from entering their towns.

"When they had the big breakout, as they called it, people in Barling set up barricades across Highway 22, and they had their guns out," Jim Spears said.

It was also reported a few refugees had been shot.

"Gunfire rang out and Cuban refugee Jose Padron lay wounded, shot by a federal protective service officer. Within a matter of seconds, a disturbance erupted. There was rock throwing and shouting and federal officers went into the crowds swinging billy clubs. For several hours angry Cubans roamed the compound throwing rocks at security officers and overturning vehicles. Before it was over, 45 people had been injured, four seriously. Nine cars had been destroyed," a journalist said in a report by CBS in 1980.

Cuban refugee Felix Earlson wasn't a part of the riots. He witnessed it from afar. Though, he contemplates what may have led up to it.

"Residents of the City of Barling, residents of the City of Fort Smith, they didn't know us. They were on alert. They were all scared because from the beginning they heard criminals were coming this way. Anyone who hears that would immediately take action and be armed guarding his or her property," said Earlson. "There were too many people that had come from prison or mental institutions. In other words, different personalities. Everyone that was there was not willing to be there. They were taken, forcibly. I imagine it was the only way they thought was right for them to express their anger and disappointment."

The Cuban refugees were stuck between two worlds— a communist-led life in Cuba and now firmly standing in the Land of the Free, sequestered between fences while waiting to begin their life again.

"We did not [riot] in Cuba because it was different there. The regime would have suffocated that upheaval. Yes, that was not allowed in Cuba at all," Earlson said.

The worst of the upheaval was still to come. Some of the refugees who were a part of the riot set fire to a few of the housing barracks at Fort Chaffee. Police reinforcements were coming from as far away as Mena and Russellville.

Those on the base were able to put out the fires and eventually calm the crowd.

They would soon hear that more Cuban refugees were coming to Fort Chaffee.

The federal government sent White House aid Gene Eidenburg to Fort Chaffee to break the news to local leaders. Fort Chaffee would become a permanent resettlement center.

"I am painfully mindful of the fact that I made a promise to this community, to its senators, and to the local officials in this area. When I visited this area on June 1, no additional Cubans were brought to Fort Chaffee. I must take personal responsibility for the necessity of extending the use of Fort Chaffee for a number of months and for bringing Cubans who are now currently housed at a few other locations to Fort Chaffee for consolidation purposes," Eidenburg said in a press conference on Fort Chaffee land in 1980.

Local and federal law enforcement tightened security measures at Fort Chaffee. Eventually, chain-linked fences went up around Fort Chaffee land.

Over the next two years, Cuban refugees would slowly find sponsors and be moved out into the U.S. to start a new life. No more riots broke out after June 1, 1980. Empty barracks were left behind, some in need of repair. Millions of federal money would be used to repair them.

125,000 Cubans escaped the communist rule in Cuba and made their way to the U.S. 

More than 25,000 of those refugees came through Fort Chaffee.

For many, Fort Chaffee was their home for quite a while. The operation to house them and get them sponsors, in total, took two years.

Watch Chaffee in Crisis, a 5NEWS full-length documentary composed of archival footage, to see what Fort Chaffee looks like today and what other historical events unfolded on the land, including the story of Rosa Rosas, who was pregnant while at Fort Chaffee when stress and physical abuse from her partner caused her to jump from a two-story window. 

Here's how to watch the documentary.

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